This invention relates to a brush-vacuum cleaning apparatus for removing residual toner particles from an image bearing surface in an electrostatographic copier or printer. More particularly, it relates to such an apparatus that is compact, simple, and improves cleaning by preventing the generation, as well as, the presence of airborne toner particles therein.
In electrostatographic copiers and printers that produce or reproduce images by employing reusable image bearing surfaces, the quality of the images obtained depends significantly on the ability to effectively clean such image bearing surfaces by removing residual toner and other particles therefrom.
Conventionally, fiber brush-vacuum cleaning apparatus, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,278,972, issued October 1966 to Hudson, can be employed in cleaning such image bearing surfaces. In the belief that cleaning is enhanced, and out of concern for damage to the brush, the brush, which is rotatably housed in an external dusthood of such conventional apparatus, is usually spaced from the inside wall of such an external dusthood, thereby creating open or free air passage ways or air pockets between the brush and such external dusthood. Consequently, residual toner particles sweepingly removed from an image bearing surface by the rotating brush, intentionally or unintentionally, become airborne within such an external dusthood. Such airborne toner particles, or toner clouds, have a tendency to build up on the inside of the external dusthood from where they can break off in chunks and clog the vacuum source of such apparatus, as well as, a tendency to migrate, leak and contaminate sensitive components within the copier or printer in which such apparatus is being employed.
In such conventional brush-vacuum cleaning apparatus that generate airborne toner particles or toner clouds, attempts to prevent such contamination or such buildup undesirably involve the use of expensive, bulky and noisy vacuum sources, or the use of bulky external dusthoods that house multiple and often electrically biased components for the purpose of attracting and collecting the airborne toner particles they generate. Such attempts besides being costly and oftenly ineffective, are undesirable, especially in light of copiers and printers becoming smaller, more compact, and more competitive with regards to image quality.